Tuesdays With Tillis

Bodies were scattered across the sidewalk outside of Thom Tillis’s office on New Bern Avenue in downtown Raleigh on Tuesday, June 20th. A news van was parked across the street. Bystanders stood vigilant nearby on the sidewalk, alternately looking over their fallen comrades and up at the dark, glossy windows of the federal building.

RCWMS board member Karen Ziegler, from her position prone on the grass, called the okay, and the “dead” arose.

In a gruesome premonition of the lives that could be lost should “Trumpcare” pass the U.S. Senate, sixty-odd citizens of the Triangle and surrounding areas gathered as part of the ongoing “Tuesdays with Tillis” series of protests. They staged a “die-in,” a nonviolent/civil disobedience tactic; holding tombstones reading “KILLED BY TRUMPCARE” and “R.I.P. MEDICARE,” folks used their bodies to occupy space (“dying” on the ground) and send a message to Senator Tillis. The die-in was added into the usual Tuesdays with Tillis programming: a brief introduction, a round of chanting and circling the building with signs, a reading of letters and an airing of grievances, a few songs, and an opportunity for folks to go two-by-two into the building to speak with Tillis’s staff and write comments in the visitor’s log.

Tuesdays with Tillis has been filling this space from 11:30am to 12:30pm every Tuesday (rain or shine) since the presidential inauguration in January. It was started by a group of citizens and is kept going by Karen Ziegler and Nancy Jacobs, who email out the week’s issue and program faithfully. Every week, protesters focus on a different topic, usually one that is imminently relevant in the landscape of U.S. politics. What with the debate raging about the possible repeal of the Affordable Care Act and replacement with what is being called “Trumpcare,” healthcare justice has been the Tuesday topic for the past couple of weeks. Past topics include reproductive justice, Russia’s potential interference in the U.S. election, the release of Trump’s tax returns, and the refusal of Sen. Tillis to meet with constituents. The day of the die-in, however, was one of the best-attended Tuesdays since the event’s inception in January. CBS News and other outlets ran coverage on the protest.

Tuesdays with Tillis protesters are asking for Thom Tillis to hold a town hall with his constituents in order to discuss some of the issues that have been on the minds of North Carolinians recently. Though asked by CBS to comment on the day’s protest, Tillis gave no response.

Resource Center staff members have been attending the weekly protests regularly; look carefully at the videoclips and you can spot Jeanette Stokes, as well as interns Colleen and Savannah. Come out and join us every Tuesday morning at 310 New Bern Avenue!